How Can I Be Sure It's A Food Reaction?

[ruthla]

As of yet I haven't had any kind of lab tests for food allergies- I'm just trying to figure all this out with an elimination diet.

When I first went dairy, soy, and gluten free (about a month ago) I noticed that my nose cleared up a whole lot. I tested cream and got congested again, so I stopped that. My nose cleared up in a few days.

I've had a hard time avoiding all soy, and I haven't been strict about that, although I've been extremely careful with the dairy and gluten.

I've been mildly congested for the past week or so- could it be something I ate? I haven't had any soy for about 4 days- and before that it was just a little soy lecithin in almond milk. Could I have been accidentally glutened? Eaten something ELSE my body doesn't tolerate? Or does this reaction have absolutely nothing to do with my diet? A virus or something maybe?

Urgh. I also have some tummy pain- hurting when I poop, and the feeling that the poop itself is burning my skin. Not all my poop, but some of it. This is what I experienced after gorging on pizza and cake at my son's birthday party in mid-November (though to a much larger degree), and what I've been assuming is a gluten reaction. I touched some bread dough on Friday and I think I may have gotten contaminated that way (yet I didn't have this reaction when I handled already cooked bread when preparing toast for my 6yo) Could the mild congestion also be caused by a minor gluten reaction?

Do these minor reactions completely slow down my gut healing? Even if I didn't eat the stuff?

[hathor]

It is hard to know for sure. All you might do is keep a diet/symptom diary and see what connections you can make.

I know I do get some sinus problems as you describe with minor gluten exposure. Once you touched the bread dough, did you thoroughly wash your hands? Might you have breathed in flour -- that seems to get people too.

Have you been avoiding casein, or just dairy? Casein gets added to things that one might not consider "dairy," like some rice cheese.

[blueeyedmanda]

I have to agree it is hard to tell. It took me a few years to know which was a glutening and which was a general illness. I know with my glutenings I get a brain fog, where I feel as if my head is in the clouds and I am very irritable. I sleep worse when I get a glutening too.

[ruthla]

Oh, I've been avoiding ALL dairy- I've been avoiding casein or any other potential "hidden cow milk protein" for years- what I've recently cut out was heavy cream, butter, and products made from sheep or goat milk.

I couldn't have breathed in any flour this week because the flour wasn't even taken out of the pantry; I was working with frozen (then thawed) bread dough.

I know with my glutenings I get a brain fog, where I feel as if my head is in the clouds and I am very irritable. I sleep worse when I get a glutening too.

Um, that about describes my fibromyalgia- and I have been really irritable, but is that from glutening or from FMS? Lack of sleep triggers FMS.